Win But Fail #1 and your RDA of links

It seems to me these days that a lot of the things that make me happy are not un-alloyed joys. Film, books, politics, etc.

I suspect it’s something that comes of being an adult, or at least of being socially aware, or having taste, but more often than not I see people who cotton onto this swing to extremes. They either ignore the bad and handwave it away or latch onto it and declare the whole thing a bad job.

That’s not ideal, I don’t think. I mean, if alloyed joy can’t still be joyful, and if flawed things can’t be worthy, I think most of us are pretty much screwed.

Therefore, I bring you the first installment of Win But Fail, being a (hopefully) weekly column about something mostly wonderful, and why it wins, but also why it fails.

This week: White Collar’s series two premiere.

~*~

Oh wait. I’ve got more links.

The Creativity Crisis From the article: When faculty of a major Chinese university asked Plucker to identify trends in American education, he described our focus on standardized curriculum, rote memorization, and nationalized testing. “After my answer was translated, they just started laughing out loud,” Plucker says. “They said, ‘You’re racing toward our old model. But we’re racing toward your model, as fast as we can.’ ”

Log Cabin Republicans bring suit against the United States government over DADT I distrust the LCR because I think it’s a little bit crazy to hang out in a party that consistently and overtly makes discrimination against the LGBTQ community a part of their local, state, and national platforms, and uses fear of “the gay agenda” to rally their base. On the other hand, I’ve actually had that moment in my car where I think, “Yeah, maybe I will check out the Reserves,” before the lightbulb pops on and I realize why that wouldn’t work.

The Advocate brings us A Day in Gay America, Part One.

Native American sovereignty? Well sure. Unless you want to travel.

A planned Islamic community center in NYC continues to face opposition because of the site’s proximity to Ground Zero. I’ve been following this story for months, and every new article makes me more heartsick. It baffles me that people still seem to have trouble working out that terrorist groups like Al Quaeda are not representative of mainstream Islam any more than Westboro Baptist Church is representative of mainstream Christianity. And yet a community center — not just a mosque, but a learning space like the YMCA, and already greenlit by the Lower Manhattan community board — engenders such hate and fear that a Republican candidate shows up and declares it a matter of public safety? Not cool.

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com

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